Radioactive
by Elfo8792
Summary: A fanfiction inspired by the song of the same name. 200 years in the future, Shadow and Silver are being hunted for various reasons. Will they be able to survive? Will they be able to avoid capture? Read to find out! Note: Rated T for later chapters.
1. Introduction: Waking Up to Ash and Dust

Hey, everyone! This is a fanfiction I'm really excited to post, because when I got my friends to read through it, I had a massive amount of positive feedback! Now, you may be wondering why I named this fanfiction 'Radioactive'... Well, I named it for the song I got inspiration from, **_Radioactive_** by **Imagine Dragons**. It's a really good song, if you ask me. You will find some subtle (and not-so-subtle) references to the song in some of the chapters. Speaking of references, I have two other references in this chapter, one to _Sonic Battle_, and another (quite obvious) one to _Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)_. Now, before you run away screaming, this fanfic has very little to do with that dreaded game. I have played it, though. I rather enjoyed it, but I'm crazy. But I digress. As per usual, here's the disclaimer:

I **_do_ _not_** own _Sonic the Hedgehog_ under any circumstances, nor do I have anything to do with Imagine Dragons or their song _Radioactive_

My fancharacter Skye _may_ show up in this, I don't know, because I've barely even thought up what's going to happen in the _next_ chapter. This fanfic is actually based in my fanon, which is very heavily based on the games' canon, but has quite the few differences, both from the games _and_ any other continuity. But without further ado, here's the fanfiction! Well, I hope you enjoy!

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**Radioactive**

A _Sonic the Hedgehog_ fanfiction by Elfo8792

**Chapter 1 – Introduction: Waking Up to Ash and Dust**

(Silver's POV)

_I was flying above the ruined city, my body glowing with the psychokinetic energy keeping it airborne. _'This world was devastated before I was born. A harsh, bleak place, where we live in eternal darkness. Life is a struggle, and people live without hope. How did this happen? No-one will answer me directly. But they always point… to the flames.' _Suddenly, a twisting tower of fire rises up before me, breaking me out of my mental ponderings. I focus my power, sweeping my hands out to the side. I swipe at the flames, my psychokinesis causing the flames to dissipate and retreat to the magma below. I drift back into my pondering once again,_ 'These flames… They burn away at my world, destroying everything in their path. They come from an eternal lifeform that we cannot truly defeat. The Flames of Disaster known as Iblis…'

"_Silver!" a refined, feminine voice pulls me out of my pondering once again as a young lavender cat jumps along the rooftops, stopping on the building behind me. It was my best friend, Blaze. She was like a sister to me, helping me survive in this world as well as fighting Iblis alongside me. She had apparently come from another dimension and had accidentally arrived in my timeline when traveling here to visit a friend of hers. She had found me fighting Iblis monsters a few years ago. I wasn't as skilled or powerful back then, and I was fighting a losing battle against the horde that had ambushed me. She had used her unique control of fire – or pyrokinesis – to fight off the monsters, saving my life. She has been visiting me from her dimension ever since._

_I turn towards her, "Blaze! What's wrong?!"  
"He's appeared again!" She cried, pointing behind her as she did so.  
I raise my chin and puff out my chest, readying myself to take on the fire demon. I concentrate my power, curling up slightly, and shoot off through the sky towards Iblis, knowing that Blaze would not be far behind._

_Iblis, this ends __**today**__._

* * *

"Silver!"  
"SILVER! Wake up!"

I awake with a start. It was that dream again. That reminder of the timeline I grew up in. It was technically erased, but I and a few others could remember it, mostly because we were the ones directly involved in it. I wipe the cold sweat off of my brow and look around. I'm lying in a cot in a jail cell-like room. Well, it wasn't jail cell-_like_ because it was an _actual jail cell_. I'll explain why in a moment.

Anyway, there was a dark figure leaning above me. The figure was the one who had shaken me awake, and at the moment looked like he was going to slap me awake if I hadn't just awoken. That was my 'father', Shadow. Now he was staring at me, his unnaturally vivid red eyes still unnerving me after all these years.

It may come as a major surprise to anyone who even vaguely knew of the quiet black-and-red hedgehog, but he had become my legal guardian not too long ago, and we now lived together in this abandoned old prison. Shadow said it had been abandoned after a devastating fire a few decades back, but with Shadow, 'a few decades back' could mean somewhere between twenty years ago to nearly a century ago. It didn't really matter to me. At least it was shelter… Shelter from… Them. Who am I talking about? Humans. Well, not all humans, since there were quite a few who had helped us survive and avoid the ones who have been chasing us.

Why are they chasing us? Iblis is long gone, and we're the only ones who remember anything of his fiery reign, but they're not after us because of that. They have various reasons. They're after Shadow because of his power, because of his 'value'. Because of his title as the Ultimate Lifeform. He quit making such a fuss about it quite a long time ago, but it still doesn't change anything. Meanwhile, they're after me because of my psychokinesis and my potential to be used as a way to capture Shadow as well. They're also after us because we are the last Mobians left on this planet. Two hundred years ago, the Mobians had already declined to less than twenty known individuals. That was Sonic and his friends. Now, there's just me and Shadow.

Anyway, as I sit up on the cot, I complain to Shadow, "I'm up, Dad. What's the rush?"  
At that, Shadow just glares at me, saying "First of all, how many times have I told you not to call me 'Dad'? Second of all, we're going out to get supplies today, remember?"  
Why doesn't Shadow like me calling him 'Dad'? Well, the relationship between the two of us is a bit more complicated than that. Shadow's a strange mix between a father, older brother, and a mentor to me, and that's why he doesn't like me calling him 'Dad'.

As for collecting supplies… The prison complex we live in is basically in the middle of nowhere, with the nearest town being roughly 100km away – which isn't too much of a problem for us – so we have to travel there about once a week to stock up on supplies, usually collected from bins and the like, but there are a few kindly folk who will give us supplies free of charge in gratitude for the various things we do around town to help. Nobody tells the authorities of our presence, either, which is a plus. But we never tell anybody where our shelter is, just in case they decide to betray us (Shadow's paranoid like that).

I quickly get up, not really having to do much to get ready for our trip. We sleep in our gloves and shoes – which isn't odd in the slightest when you're a Mobian – and our fur is surprisingly low-maintenance. I quickly grab one of those energy bar things and a bottle of water for the trip. When it comes to supplies, we have to ration them out, but I usually get a decent breakfast each morning, thanks to the fact that Shadow lets me have most of the supplies. The only exception to this is the days we head out to Emerald Town (the closest settlement) to collect supplies, like we are today. At least I'll hopefully get a decent lunch to make up for it.

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So, what do you think? Good? Bad? Ugly? Please tell me in the comments/reviews if you want to, along with suggestions that can help me improve my fanfiction writing. Also, if you pick up the references, feel free to let me know that they're actually noticeable! Thank you so much for reading, and enjoy your life!


	2. Checking Out on the Prison Bus

Yay! Here's the second chapter! I know this is a little late, but I'm hoping to get one chapter out per week. That may change, though... Anyway, in this chapter, the T rating starts to shine through, so be warned. Anyway, here's the disclaimer!

I _**do** **not**_ own _Sonic the Hedgehog_ under any circumstances, nor do I have anything to do with Imagine Dragons or their song _Radioactive_

And without further ado, enjoy!

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**Radioactive**

A _Sonic the Hedgehog_ fanfiction by Elfo8792

**Chapter 2 – Breaking In, Shaping Up, Then Checking Out on the Prison Bus**

(Shadow's POV)

As Silver and I jog through the mazelike corridors of the prison, I start to reflect on my choice of taking shelter here in the first place. Most people would think it's a really stupid idea to live in a _prison_ of all places, but that's one of the main reasons I decided to raise Silver here. It may not have the best living conditions, but it's highly unlikely that anyone would look for us here. The prison is also very isolated, with the nearest town being 100km away. It is also located 50km away from an old nuclear reactor. It had a meltdown 150 years ago, and it has been abandoned ever since. This prison was built 20km outside of the Exclusion Zone roughly 50 years after the meltdown, if my memory serves. This is the closest man-made structure to the reactor, with nothing else being built within 150km of the site due to the threat of radiation. We, however, can live here without problems due to the fact that Mobians are far more resistant to radiation than any human.

Another reason I chose for us to live here is because of the security. A (possibly desired) consequence of the supposed inescapability of high-tech, high-security prisons is that they're just about as hard to get into as they are to get out of. This particular prison is incredibly high-security, similar to the now long-destroyed Prison Island (By the way, I am not in any way, shape or form proud of my involvement in its destruction, either). The complex is surrounded by a five-metre-high wall constructed of one-metre-thick reinforced concrete and topped with electrified razor wire. The gates into the prison are just as high-tech, with various electronic locks and the like, not to mention that the gates themselves are made out of military-grade reinforced titanium alloy. Exactly why this prison was so high-security escapes my memory, though (In other words, I never found out).

When Silver and I first settled here, 95% of the security systems were either shut down, dysfunctional, or damaged by the fire. But with some old-fashioned hard work and a bit of 'maintenance' (read: a bit of bashing [1]), we managed to get all except one system running smoothly. The one system we didn't get back online was the mechanism used to work the prison gate, but that was deliberate. The sheer weight of the gates would be able to keep the vast majority of intruders out, but not us, due to Silver's psychokinesis and my natural super strength.

I was so caught up in thought that I barely realised it when we stopped before the gate, which was the only way in or out of the prison complex (apart from a few emergency entryways/exits, both pre-existing and dug out by Silver and I). I quickly went up to the gates, swiped the access card we had found across the lock, and started to push them open. Once they were fully open, I stepped out into the field that spread out around the prison. The field was covered in various species of wild grasses, creating an absolutely gorgeous mixture of greens, yellows, oranges and browns. Many people may not know this, but I have quite the fondness for nature, especially when it's practically untouched like this.

Silver steps out beside me, and I turn around and push the gates closed again, making sure they had locked properly. Once that was done, I walked up to Silver. We looked at each other, nodded and we were off to Emerald Town in a flash of gold and cyan.

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Once we arrived at Emerald Town, we realised the place was overrun with soldiers. They were raiding the resident's homes, most likely looking for us. Suddenly, we hear a shout coming from an alleyway near us. Cautiously, we approach the alleyway, peering around the corner to see what was going on. By the looks of it, one of the soldiers had cornered one of Emerald Town's residents, and was now questioning them.  
"WHERE ARE THE HEDGEHOG FREAKS?!" the soldier questioned harshly.  
Silver muttered to me, "Well, that's not very respectful…"  
"You'd better get used to it, kid… I've been called worse. _Much_ worse…" I mutter in reply.

Meanwhile, the citizen just cowered before the imposing figure of the soldier, barely stuttering out a reply. "I-I d-d-don't... know… S-sir..." The soldier scowled before slapping the person across the face. That's when I snapped. I may hate humans, but this one was one of the many residents of Emerald Town, the town that had helped us elude the authorities for so long. I couldn't just stand there and do nothing, so in a flash of bright blue light, I Chaos Controlled behind the soldier, knocking him out cold with a swift kick to the back of the head.

The light caused by Chaos Control must have attracted attention, because the next thing I knew, Silver was waving his arms frantically and yelling. "Shadow, we have company!" My head snapped up immediately, looking up to the group of soldiers now blocking the entrance to the alleyway. Silver was standing next to me, looking ready to fight (albeit reluctantly). The soldiers raised their weapons, but I was already upon them. I had already downed fifteen before they even realised what had hit them. I didn't kill any, because that would be unnecessary. Besides, we didn't need yet another reason for the bastards to hunt us down.

As we kept on fighting, I realised Silver was starting to have trouble fending off the soldiers. He was throwing things like trash cans and soft drink bottles at them with his psychokinesis, but to little avail. Finally, one of the soldiers got close enough to grab Silver and restrain him.  
"Surrender and the kid walks free" spat the soldier, pressing his gun to Silver's head.  
At that, a tear rolled down Silver's cheek, "Don't do it, Shadow! Please! They're lying!"  
"Let Silver go, and I'll come peacefully" I said calmly, holding out my arms, ready to be handcuffed.  
"Shadow!" Silver cried, "_Dad!_ Please don't do this!"  
"I'm not going to let them do to you what they did to me! I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did. You've got your whole life ahead of you- you deserve to live it!" I replied, really not caring at the moment that Silver had called me 'Dad'. The situation was too dire.

I could attack them here and now, but I have no idea what they'd do to Silver if I did. All I could really do was offer myself up as a substitute for Silver. They were probably more focused on getting their filthy hands on me, anyway. I just hoped that they'll keep up their end of the bargain, but I doubted it. All I can do is hope. There weren't many other options available, so I went with this one.

"Very well, then" said the soldier, releasing Silver. Thank goodness he held up his end of the deal.  
"Shadow…" Silver almost whined. I knew he didn't like being alone, but it would surely be better than the fate he would have at the hands of these bastards.  
"I know, Silver… Just be strong. I know you can be." I said, a tinge of sadness creeping into my voice. "And one last thing… Catch" I tossed him the access card to the prison and the Chaos Emerald in my possession. I don't want these idiots to get their hands on something so precious and powerful. Thank goodness they didn't seem to know what it was, let alone show any interest in it. And with that, they cuffed me and dragged me away.

'_This is probably the last time I'll ever see Silver again. Stay strong, kid. Even without me.'_

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Oh my gosh! What just happened? Okay, yeah, I did do Shadow out-of-character. Bite me. I probably did Silver OOC, too, but that also has something to do with my interpretation of his personality...

Also, if you were wondering what the '[1]' meant, it's meant to be like a side-note thingie, so yeah.  
Here's the associated side note: [1] In the world of TV Tropes and Idioms, it's known as Percussive Maintenance (follow this link to find out more: /Main/PercussiveMaintenance )

Oh! And before I go, I'd like to thank my friend, Raymond Knightmare (aka Meta Knightmare) for his help as proof-reader and editor. If you (Raymond Knightmare), are reading this, I really appreciate your help!


End file.
